Climate Impacts: Drought & Heatwaves

EXAMPLES: WHAT’S IN STOREEach new year sees far more new records for hot

days than cold. Last summer, the U.S. had 11

times as many communities with record hot days

as record cold days.2

The Amazon just came through its second

‘hundred-year drought in five years,’3 a record

drought in Texas killed half a billion trees,4 and

stream flows in the world’s largest rivers are

declining fast.5

In the summer of 2010, Russia had the greatest

heatwave in its history.6 The subsequent drought

was so severe that the Kremlin stopped exporting

grain to the rest of the world, causing the price of

corn and wheat to rise by 85% overnight.7

Scientists at Stanford and the University of Wash-

ington calculate that each 1° increase in global

average temperature will reduce grain yields by

10%,9 and ”Mega-heatwaves" like the ones that

struck Europe in 2003 and 2010 will become 5–10

times more likely over the next 40 years.10

1) thinkprogress.org/romm/2010/10/18/206876/noaa-2010-hottest-year-on-record-zambia-national-all-time-record/

2) thinkprogress.org/romm/2010/10/18/206876/noaa-2010-hottest-year-on-record-zambia-national-all-time-record/

3) nature.com/news/2010/101029/full/news.2010.571.html4) reuters.com/article/2012/02/16/us-drought-trees-texas-

idUSTRE81F02W201202165) www2.ucar.edu/atmosnews/news/854/water-levels-dropping-some-

major-rivers-global-climate-changes6) guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/feb/21/climate-change-

russian-heatwave, columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2012/20120105_PerceptionsAndDice.pdf

7) http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2008081,00.html8) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/8918605/

Climate-change-could-push-up-food-prices.html9) http://www.sciencemag.org/content/323/5911/240.short10) http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/mar/17/deadly-

heatwaves-europe “Long-term effects of heat wave for Russia” http://en.rian.ru/images/16027/39/160273983.jpg

As atmospheric CO2 traps more and more heat from the

sun, heat waves are already becoming harsher, longer, and

more frequent. And since water evaporates faster at

higher temperatures, it means droughts are becoming

harsher, longer, and more frequent too.

In 2010, 18 nations set new all-time high tem-perature records.

Pakistan broke the high temperature record for the entire Asian continent with an unbelievably hot 53.5°C (128°F) during the 2010 heatwave.3

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